Snooper’s Charter is set to become law: how the Investigatory Powers Bill will affect you

After more than 12 months of debate, jostling and a healthy dose of criticism, the United Kingdom’s new surveillance regime is set to become law.

Both the House of Lords and House of Commons have now passed the Investigatory Powers Bill – the biggest overhaul of surveillance powers for more than a decade.

Now the bill has been passed by both of these official bodies, it is almost law. Before it officially is adopted, however, it will need to receive Royal Assent, which is likely to be given before the end of 2016 (to match the government’s intentions and ahead of existing surveillance laws expiring).

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The Home Office, the department responsible for the law, has said the provisions listed within it are needed to help protect the country’s national security and give more oversight than ever before. While civil rights groups and those in opposition to the powers say it is intrusive and draconian.

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Here’s a reminder of what the legislation includes:

Hacking power

For the first time, security services will be able to hack into computers, networks, mobile devices, servers and more under the proposed plans. The practice is known as equipment interference and is set out in part 5, chapter 2, of the IP Bill.

This could include downloading data from a mobile phone that is stolen or left unattended, or software that tracks every keyboard letter pressed being installed on a laptop.

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“More complex equipment interference operations may involve exploiting existing vulnerabilities in software in order to gain control of devices or networks to remotely extract material or monitor the user of the device,” a draft code of conduct says.

The power will be available to police forces and intelligence services. Warrants must be issued for the hacking to take place.

Bulk hacking

For those not living in the UK, but who have come to the attention of the security agencies, the potential to be hacked increases. Bulk equipment interference (chapter 3 of the IP Bill) allows for large scale hacks in “large operations”.

Data can be gathered from “a large number of devices in the specified location”. A draft code of practice says a foreign region (although it does not give a size) where terrorism is suspected could be targeted, for instance. As a result, it is likely the data of innocent people would be gathered.

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Security and intelligence agencies must apply for a warrant from the Secretary of State and these groups are the only people who can complete bulk hacks.

Commissioners

To help oversee the new powers, the Home Office is introducing new roles to approve warrants and handle issues that arise from the new powers. The Investigatory Powers Commissioner (IPC) and judicial commissioners (part 8, chapter 1 of the IP Bill) will be appointed by Theresa May, or whoever the serving prime minister is at the time.

The IPC will be a senior judge and be supported by other high court judges. “The IPC will audit compliance and undertake investigations,” the government says.

“The Commissioner will report publicly and make recommendations on what he finds in the course of his work,”guidance on the original bill says (page 6). “He will also publish guidance when it is required on the proper use of investigatory powers.”

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Web records

Under the IP Bill, security services and police forces will be able to access communications data when it is needed to help their investigations. This means internet history data (Internet Connection Records, in official speak) will have to be stored for 12 months.

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Communications service providers, which include everything from internet companies and messenger services to postal services, will have to store meta data about the communications made through their services.

The who, what, when, and where will have to be stored. This will mean your internet service provider stores that you visited WIRED.co.uk to read this article, on this day, at this time and where from (i.e. a mobile device). This will be done for every website visited for a year.

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Web records and communications data is detailed under chapter 3, part 3 of the law and warrants are required for the data to be accessed. A draft code of practice details more information on communications data.

Bulk data sets

As well as communications data being stored, intelligence agencies will also be able to obtain and use “bulk personal datasets”. These mass data sets mostly include a “majority of individuals” that aren’t suspected in any wrongdoing but have been swept-up in the data collection.

These (detailed under part 7 of the IP Bill and in a code of practice), as well as warrants for their creation and retention must be obtained.

“Typically these datasets are very large, and of a size which means they cannot be processed manually,” the draft code of practice describes the data sets as. These types of databases can be created from a variety of sources.

More on the IP Bill

During the past 12 months, WIRED has covered the passage of the IP Bill through parliament. Here’s some more reading on the bill’s journey from WIRED and beyond:

3 thoughts on “Snooper’s Charter is set to become law: how the Investigatory Powers Bill will affect you”

What do you want me to say ???????????????????????????????????????????????
The British people still worship & adore their ROYAL FAMILY
&
The British people still worship & adore the Royal leeches & parasites who suck sustenance off the ELITE’S GOVERNMENT WELFARE SYSTEM that keeps them “IN JOLLY, BLOODY, MONEY, OLD BOY”
&
The British people worship & adore THEIR LOT / WHAT THEY RIGHTLY DESERVE / POVERTY & MISERY.
The British people are PROUD SERFS of their beloved Lords & Masters.
The good old fashioned British people & their decaying Royals are loving every minute of their demented lifestyle.
When the British people find themselves in containment camps / filthy shanty towns on the fringes of the city .. they will be in 7th heaven .. it will be a case of “back to the good old days of yore” when flogging was considered a Friday Nights entertainment ..
Lost causes are not my thing . we should just leave them to it & worry about us
Hooray & long live the parasites of GREAT BRITAIN.

We in Australia have been financially supporting The Bloody Great British People ever since the lazy thieving prats colonized Our Beloved Country Australia .. ( here I take the liberty of also speaking for the first & original owners of the magnificent land mass.)

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